"Liberating" Data - a new policy

Today the Executive Order regarding a new Open Data Policy
was released by the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the
Office of Management and Budget. Basicaly it states that "all newly generated government data
will be required to be made available in open, machine-readable formats,
greatly enhancing their accessibility and usefulness, while ensuring
privacy and security." This Executive Order and accompanying policies aim to build public reporting systems, revamp goals, and create new means for public participation while specifying principles for openness.

The Federal
Government has been taking steps to make government data more
available. In 2009 Data.gov was launched allowing users to access thousands of government datasets. The Digital Government Strategy, the Health Data Initiative, and Open Data Initiative
(in health, energy, education, public safety, finance, and global
development) are further examples of how agencies have been unlocking government data.

Furthermore, the US Chief Information Officer and the US Chief Technology Officer are
releasing open source tools on Github (where communities of developers can work collaboratively). Better known as Project Open Data,
this effect accelerates the adoption of open data practices by providing tools and best practices to help agencies improve the
management and release of open data. For example, one tool released
today automatically converts simple spreadsheets and databases into APIs
for easier consumption by developers.

However, there still remain datasets that are not only hard to find but are also locked-up in unusable formats. (Remember floppy disks?) This new Executive Order and Policy signed today, May 9th, requires that government agencies
provide newly generated government data in machine-readable formats (like
CSV, XML, and JSON and even Application
Programming Interfaces (APIs) when appropraite).